DIFFERENTIAL RECOVERY OF A DEEP-WATER SWAMP FOREST ACROSS A GRADIENT OF DISTURBANCE INTENSITY

On the Savannah River Site, South Carolina, USA, large areas of floodp lain swamp forest of baldcypress (Taxodium distichum) and water tupelo (Nyssa aquatica) were destroyed by the cumulative impacts of cooling- water discharges over a 35-year period of nuclear reactor operations. In one floodplain area, four years after thermal discharges ended, we analyzed the pattern of forest recovery across a disturbance gradient spanning from a site of chronic thermal impact and extensive sediment deposition to sites of intermittent thermal impact and little substrat e change. Across this spatial gradient, we measured density and size s tructure of cypress and tupelo and assessed regeneration success in re lation to density of surviving canopy trees and to substrate changes. Compared with undisturbed forest, canopy tree density was lower in all disturbed sites and decreased progressively with greater site disturb ance. Density of tree regeneration decreased in parallel with declinin g canopy tree density; however, regeneration was particularly low in t he site of chronic impact, where very few canopy trees had survived an d where substrates had been modified by sedimentation. Size structures suggested that tree recruitment had occurred synchronously during a 5 -year period of regional drought and minimal river flooding. Thus, cyp ress-tupelo recovery was influenced both by availability of seed sourc es and by site conditions, but floodplain hydrology also affected rege neration. The pattern of differential recovery across the disturbance gradient has allowed the use of natural regeneration potential in effo rts to restore the pre-disturbance forest, and it also illustrates sev eral key factors in wetlands design.